Endowment for Robert Frost collection at $65,000 and growing

Submitted

English poet Robert
Graves reportedly once said: "There's no money in poetry, but then there's no
poetry in money either."

He was wrong, at least
when it comes to beloved American poet Robert Frost.

In two months, the
University at Buffalo raised more than $65,000 to create an endowment to
support its prized collection of Frost materials, officially known as the
Victor E. Reichert Robert Frost Collection. Additionally, the endowment will
fund an annual event that honors Frost and could enable UB to make new
Frost-related acquisitions.

"Support for the
humanities, especially poetry, has been and continues to be incredibly strong
in the Buffalo Niagara region," said Michael Basinski, curator of the poetry
collection of the university libraries. "We would like to thank our generous
donors, particularly Jonathan Reichert, who helped ensure these treasured
materials receive the care and attention they so richly deserve."

A UB professor emeritus
of physics, Reichert donated the collection to UB in January. It includes
letters, photographs, audio recordings and other documents that chronicle the
24-year friendship between Frost and his father, the late Victor E. Reichert, a
Cincinnati rabbi.

Perhaps more so than any
other Frost collection, this one could illuminate views on the poet's religious
beliefs, which have been the subject of debate for decades.

"The collection was my
father's treasure. It is a small, but not insignificant, part of American
literature," Reichert said. "Now it has a permanent home, where it will live
for all to examine, to study, to interpret, to debate and to learn."

In addition to the
collection, Reichert pledged $50,000 for the endowment if UB could raise
$15,000. The poetry collection began soliciting donations in July and to date
has raised nearly $20,000. So far, 79 groups or individuals have donated.

Founded in 1937, the
poetry collection includes one of the world's foremost collections of James
Joyce materials; significant collections on Dylan Thomas, William Carlos
Williams, Robert Duncan and other writers and poets, including Graves.